Many computer users have online accounts for various web-based services. These online accounts may be for email services, purchasing products, access to word processing or other applications, social networking services, and many other uses.
The web based services, also known as cloud services, may have various authentication mechanisms. In some cases, a cloud service may have very simple authentication that consists of only a user identification and password, chosen by the user. Such authentication mechanisms may be anonymous. Other cloud services may use a credit card or other mechanism to verify user identity. In such services, an online identification may be traced back to an actual human being using the credit card or other mechanism.